The 2016
auction of Indian Premier League (IPL) surely bought many surprises with some
big players going unsold and few unknown players getting big amounts in their
pocket. With two new teams in this year’s edition of IPL, the auction became
more interesting. As expected, both the new teams; i.e. Gujarat Lions (GL) and
Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) bought maximum numbers of players with 19 and 18
cricketers. The least numbers of players were bought by Kolkata Knight Riders
and Mumbai Indians with 7 cricketers by each team. As the auction ends and the
teams gear up for the ninth edition of the cash rich T20 league, Abhishek Kumar brings you top 10
surprises.
1. Martin Guptill: This is inarguably the biggest surprise of this
year’s IPL auction when no team bid for this big man from New Zealand. Guptill
has been in very good from in limited-overs format this year. Till now he has
played five Twenty20 International (T20I) in which he scored 252 runs at an
average of 63. After looking at those numbers, one can surely be surprised with
him being not picked by any team.
2. Pawan Negi: The 23-year-old all-rounder from Delhi hasn’t
even played any international match but got his pocket filled with huge amount.
It was recently announced that Negi is now the part of India’s T20I side for
three upcoming series, which big tournaments like Asia Cup and ICC World T20
2016. It seems like his hype of getting selected in the national side bought
him at INR 8.50 crores by Delhi Daredevils (DD). No doubt that Negi is a good
all-rounder in domestic circuit, but to get such huge amount without having any
international experience is truly bizarre.
3. Eklavya Dwivedi and Ankit Singh Rajpoot: Many would
have not even heard the names of these two players but still they got Rs 1
crore and Rs 1.5 crore by Gujarat Lions and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
Eklavya is a wicketkeeper-batsman from Uttar Pradesh (UP) and has pretty decent
record in T20 format. In 34 matches he averages 40.26 at a strike rate of
130.10 but still, such high bid for a player without any international
experience is not fathomable. Same goes with Ankit as well, who is another
player from UP is a decent right arm medium fast bowler. Ankit has been bought
by KKR and this is not the first time they have bid an unknown face by paying
big amount. Last year, KKR picked KC Cariappa for a whopping Rs 2.4 crore but
couldn’t anything special out of it. This year, KKR have set another example of
bizarre bidding and gave a blink of surprise to all the viewers.
4. Manoj Tiwary and Pragyan Ojha: How come not a single
team bid for these two international players, who have represented Indian team
in the recent past and have been always in the bench. Both Tiwary and Ojha
played a crucial role in winning the title for their respective teams. Ojha has
been a very successful spinner in IPL, while Tiwary was the person who hit the
winning runs in IPL 2012 for KKR. At some point, it is still acceptable to not
buy a big player who is not very much favourable to the subcontinent conditions
but these two have always performed and won several matches for their teams.
Any team would have got big benefit by picking these two, but since IPL is full
surprises, so this is just another example.
5. Darren Sammy and George Bailey: Both are known for
their hard hitting strokes and their ever smiling faces. It would be really sad
for a certain amount of fans that are not going to see these two cool
cricketers. Sammy is currently the captain the West Indies T20 side and has won
the World Cup title under his captaincy in 2012. On the other hand, Bailey was
once the captain of Australian side is considered to be one big player when it
comes to limited-overs format of the game. This is truly a big disappointment
for fans as both these big guns will not be seen in this edition of IPL.
6. Cheteshwar Pujara and Jaydev Shah: Earlier, Pujara was
always in question when it comes to T20 format but prior to the auction, he
performed very well in the domestic T20 tournament. In his six matches in Syed
Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Pujara scored 232 runs at 46.40 with a strike rate of
117.76. But all his effort got completely ignore in today’s auction and then
came a surprise selection. Jaydev Shah from Rajkot was bought by Gujarat team
for Rs 20 lakhs, which is quite surprising as he has done nothing big in the
domestic tournament so far.. It would have been better if Pujara would have
been picked who is well know face in the international cricket.
7. Krunal Pandya: This was certainly the most bizarre bid
of the auction. He was bought for Rs 2 crores by Mumbai Indians and he is yet
to play a First-Class match! This is probably the influence of his brother
Hardik, who recently performed for India’s T20I side in Australia Down Under.
It seems quite funny when we see the amount both these brothers get in IPL. Hardik
gets only Rs 10 lakhs and on the other side, his younger brother Krunal will
get Rs 2 crores from now onwards, who has actually done nothing big to impress.
8. Murugan Ashwin: This player from Tamil Nadu is the
highest gainer of this year’s IPL auction. With a base price of 10 lakhs, this
man was bought by Rising Pune Supergiants for Rs 4.5 crore. Did they forgot
that he is not R Ashwin, and even if they forgot, what about the other
franchises who made this bid possible to reach at Rs 4.5 crore. He has played
only six domestic T20 matches which is not a big amount of experience to get
such huge bid.
9. Carlos Braithwaite: The 27-year-old cricketer
from West Indies is a good hitter of the ball but his consistency has always
been in the question. He averages only 14.61 with the bat, which is very poor
for a player who gets a bid of Rs 4.2 crore in IPL. This was another bizarre
bid by DD, who has a knack of doing it quite frequently in the auctions.
10. Karun Nair and Sanju Samson: No doubt that both are
very promising young talents but in last one year, they have not been
consistent neither they have given any special performance which attracts the
bidders. But still they got over Rs 4 crores and both were bought by DD. They
are seriously becoming one those franchises is known for bizarre bidding. Watch
IPL 2016 for more details visit our website allindiayellowpage.com.